Democrats to add 4 Supreme Court Judges in retaliation for ‘stolen’ picks
Pollemix News – April 15, 2021
Democrat lawmakers are set to unveil legislation on Thursday to add four new Supreme Court judges to the bench in what looks to be the opening salvo in what promises to be a bruising fight over the future balance of the Judiciary.
The effort is being led by Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey and co-sponsored by Georgia Representative Hank Johnson, as well as New York House members Jerry Nadler and Mondaire Jones. Democrats have the edge in Congress with Vice President Kamala Harris holding the crucial tie-breaking vote in the Senate, so a vote along party lines on the bill means that Biden will have the power to appoint 4 liberal judges to the Supreme Court tilting the court in his favor.
Predictably, Republicans reacted with fury on Capitol Hill with Ohio Representative Steve Chabo issuing a statement blasting the Democrats attempt to ‘pack the court’:
“The Democrats are apparently so drunk with power here in Washington, that they’re going to give it another try and I think that’s really unfortunate. I think it could tear this country apart.”
Democrats on the other hand, seem hell-bent on avenging the ‘loss’ of two ‘stolen’ Supreme Court picks by the Republicans. Representative David Cicciline fired back at Chabo saying:
“The party that packed the court are the Republicans who jammed through nominees and refused to consider Merrick Garland.”
In 2016 then President Barack Obama nominated Merrick Garland to the bench after the death of conservative justice Antonin Scalia. Garland’s appointment, however, was blocked by Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell who claimed that with a Presidential Election only 9 months away the new President should fill the vacancy.
McConnell’s tune changed in 2020, however, following the death of liberal icon Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg less than 2 months out from the election. Disregarding the precedent they established in 2016, Republicans confirmed Trump nominee Amy Coney Barrett to the bench less than a fortnight before Election Day. Senator McConnell dismissed Democrat accusations of hypocrisy, however, by claiming that the edict that no President should be allowed to fill a Supreme Court vacancy in the last year of their term only applied if the opposing party controlled the Senate.
Despite McConnell’s tap-dancing on the issue, Democrats were left seething over Trump being able to ‘steal’ two appointments to the Supreme Court thus shifting the balance to 6-3 in favor of conservatives. Privately Democrats have been plotting how to avenge the ‘theft’ and it seems that they have fired the opening burst in their effort to redress their grievance.
Throughout the 2020 Presidential campaign Biden remained coy when asked whether he would “pack the courts”, but his appointment of a Supreme Court Commission and this latest move indicates that Democrats see the judiciary as the remaining impediment to their goal of implementing a number of progressive agenda items. Moreover it will hand Democrats control of all three branches of Government till at least the 2022 mid-terms, which will be key in achieving key legislative goals such as expanding Medicare, increasing corporate taxes and implementing a ‘Green New Deal’.
It was the author of the original ‘New Deal’ Franklin Delano Roosevelt who was the last President to push to expand the number of Supreme Court Judges after he became frustrated at the Court for striking down a number of his New Deal programs. Democrats will be hoping Biden will succeed where FDR failed, whilst Republicans pray that conservative Senators such as Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Az) break ranks with their party to scupper the bill. In 1937 it was FDR’s own Democrat colleagues who prevented him from expanding the Supreme Court to 15 judges. Whether President Biden will encounter the same resistance in this era of modern day hyper-partisanship remains to be seen but it is clear the direction of the judiciary for a generation hangs in the balance.
